Lori Flaglor- Let's Get Organized!

Hi everybody, it's me again Lori Flaglor with another Show  N Tell Saturday blog post.

      I'm so excited to be showing you my Teacher Toolkit.  Everyday when I walk into my classroom it is the first thing I see and it always makes me smile. I love it because it is so bright, colorful, and makes me so organized.

Click here  

  I can store all of my office supplies in it and I can actually find things when I need them. You can purchase these drawer units at Lowe's click here. They come in 18, 22, and even 39 drawer units.

  

  My friend at work and I made an 18 unit for her to store all of her teacher supplies. Look at the mess before!

  It was so easy! This product is completely editable. She just typed in the names of the supplies she wanted and even changed the font.

 Print out as many labels as you need and laminate. She then just cut out the labels and stuck double sided tape onto the back of them and stuck them to the drawer fronts.

 We had so much fun filling the drawers and arranging the colors. Look how organized and bright it is! She loves it! 

 Here's a picture of my 22 drawer unit. If you want to get organized this summer, visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to purchase the downloadable file to make your own Teacher Organizer.

Happy Organizing!

Lori Flaglor                       

Incomplete Work Sleeve

Hi everyone! I'm Bex but you might know me as Reading and Writing Redhead from my blog and my teacher store!

Let's do a quick get-to-know-me and then I will share my tip for today! 

I grew up in the Boston area and now live about 45 minutes from Boston and teach in Massachusetts (hello, worst winter EVER!!). I have taught second grade for 16 years and also have a reading specialist degree and certification.  I love reading and love spending times with my family and friends. Until recently I owned an adorable, sweet, lazy Saint Bernard, but he was an "old man dog", as I called him and had to say goodbye to him just a few weeks ago. It doesn't seem right to introduce myself without mentioning him, though, as he was such a big part of my life.

Here are a couple pictures and then I will share my tip!

Here I am around 2nd grade with my brother for a super stylish Easter pic and on the right is Bailey enjoying the first good snow of 2013-4. He loved to stick his head in the snow and rear up like a pony!

    

And me and the big boy during a photo session a few years ago. He was cracking me up for some reason so it was fun!

So, are you ready for  your teaching tip? Over the years I had tried so many different ways to keep track of incomplete work and some students had a history of just having dozens of papers in their desk that they never finished. What a nightmare! Well, I am not going to take credit for it - I saw it somewhere on Pinterest and I just tried to track down a blogger who may have come up with the idea but I couldn't narrow it down, so if it's you please let us know! 

It's a simple solution- the incomplete (or unfinished) work sleeve!  here is one in my class. It's not cute or pretty, but it works! Just tape it to the side or back of students' desks with packing tape and you're good to go. Now just with a quick glance you can see what they need to do.

And another tip or two- initially I tried taping it horizontally along the top edge of the gallon size plastic bag, but if a student got more than a few papers in their sleeve, or bumped into it or was a little rough when they pulled stuff out, it would fall off. So I added the less attractive vertical pieces of tape. Hey it holds, though! Also, it is very easy for parents at conferences to get an idea of how much work they have to catch up on and that can help if you have a concern and it is also a cinch to just reach in, pull the papers out and right there at the desk, and review them with the student.

I hope you enjoyed my tip and have a great Thursday!  

                              

Organize Your Centers for the Year

Happy Thursday!  It's Lisa here from Second Grade Stories and I'm so thrilled to be part of such a wonderful group of bloggers and the new iTeachSecond blog!  I've taught second grade now for MANY years and I absolutely love it!  It is definitely my favorite grade to be teaching. 

I know many of you are either on spring break, or getting ready for spring break - I still have another week to go!  But either way, spring break often means spring cleaning, whether it's at home or in your classroom.  It might be true that I like to spend a few hours one day at school over break going through any paper piles, putting away books and just generally getting a fresh start as we head towards the end of the year. Today's "Tipster Thursday" post is all about a great way to keep track of all the centers and activities you cut, color and laminate all year.

Last year, one of the things that drove me crazy was trying to keep all my centers and activities organized.  I started out by keeping everything in file folders, which quickly overwhelmed my file cabinet drawers.  I couldn't find what I needed and all the materials kept falling out.  I knew I had to find a better way. And I did!  Ta-dah!

I absolutely LOOOOVE these bins!  I found them at Wal-Mart for $3 - $4 ea. and it was love at first sight!  (Ignore the fact that there are two different kinds because I bought them in two different places and didn't realize they were not the same ones - drives me crazy!)  All nine of these bins fit perfectly on my shelf and hold a LOT more than I thought they would.

I labeled them by math theme, with ones for spelling and grammar, too.  (Actually, I might have gone a little crazy labeling things before school started.) I also have a thing for plastic bags of all sizes - I store all my centers/activities in ziploc bags.  Then all I have to do is pull out the one I need and I'm ready to go!  If I have more than one set of an activity (like for small groups), each one is in a bag and all the bags go in one bigger gallon size bag.

This has saved me so much time digging to try and find what I need - and I find I put things back right away, which is more than I can say for my old system!  Another advantage to this system is that I can keep out the container for the skill/concept we're currently working on, and add to it as we go.

The only disadvantage so far?

I need more!  I found that having just one container for things like "2-digit addition and subtraction" is too broad.  I really need separate ones for addition with regrouping, subtraction with regrouping, etc.  I'm also going to divide my spelling activities into smaller categories: short vowels and magic e, vowel teams, etc.  I'm going to need two for grammar, as well!

While I was getting photos for this post, I was taking things out of my current math centers and putting them away - and I thought of another tip to share with you to make your life easier! Aside from Ziploc bags of all sizes, I buy a TON of sheet protectors each year.  We use them for so many things!

This is a picture of one of our math center bins from the last week.  Those are Easter BUMP games and I always put my gameboards in sheet protectors to help cut down on the wear and tear.  (The exact number of cubes and the dice, or whatever is needed for the game) is also in the bin, so all my kiddos have to do is grab the bin and head to their spot - no wasted time trying to get everything ready!

I also put the recording sheets for centers or small group activities in sheet protectors - that cuts down on the amount of paper being used, because kids can just wipe it off at when they are done.  (I have them show me or leave the sheet in a pile for me to check if I want.)  I put the cards or pieces for the center right in the sheet protector, which keeps everything even more organized - no more searching through the bin for the cards to go with each center. I even go so far as to include the markers and erasers - no excuse not to get started right away!  The directions are on another sheet in the sheet protector, turned so the pages are back to back - recording sheet facing one way, directions facing the other way!

At the end of the week (or whenever we're changing out centers), I have my kiddos take out all the old sheets and materials, put them back in gallon baggies and drop them in the plastic bin.  Then we pull out new things!  I've always found that having my students help do this allows them to see that we are working on new things and gives them a sneak peak into what we're doing next!  It also helps them take ownership of the materials and it's a great way to build that classroom community!

I hope these tips have helped give you an idea for how to organize small group activities for the year.  I'd love to hear how you keep things organized!